Discussion (67) ¬

Yep, Mr Randi only needs a quick poit to spill the cash, then shave his head and disappear in a Tibetean monastery for the rest of his days…
Would be so much fun to see…

(I know, Monica would never do that to someone she respects, but it’d be interesting to see whether her view would change of his acts in sight of her new knowledge (of course, the people knocked by Randi are probably real charlatans even in Wapsiverse, so there…))

SUDDEN IDEA: maybe Randi is allied with Brandi and Bud’s MIB to keep the populace out of the loop on the “supernatural”?

Yeah, the charlatans will still be charlatans, even in this setting where magic works. Because anyone who *can* do magic can make millions of dollars easily, without the need to go public to claim Randi’s prize.

Yes, but what exactly would be considered supernatural in Monica’s universe? I mean, we’ve got golems, time loops, and an immortal Gorgon sister with an impenetrable Deep South accent and a career in marine biology…

I see the question has been answered quite well, but my 2centimes; I knew him waaaaay back before he was famous 😉 He and another magician were roommates in NYC, with one room set aside for their two pet kinkajous – one was named Gigi – one was missing an eye – I was very young – pre-teen – and adored him and his friend (name retained for privacy) and Gigi too 😉 I even helped in a couple shows as a planted assistant 😉

I definitely appreciate the work he and others have done in debunking charlatans. Nothing like stopping snake oil salesmen before they can swindle people out of their money and sometimes lives; It is that most De-bunkers I have known refuse to believe in anything without an instant scientific explanation. They have no sense of wonder in that unknown. That to me becomes septic.

Loving the new posting time for the comic. Also love James Randi but his experiment designs need work, the one I remember particularly only “proved” that the person being tested had a force that wasn’t well contained, not that he was turning pages by blowing on them. If he wanted to prevent the subject from blowing the pages all he needed to do was make the subject wear a dust mask while he did the experiment…

I remember that one – I think Randi did prove that in all likelihood it was his breath. Of course, the guy being tested could explain away any failures after Randi made it impossible to use his breath by saying he was psychically tired, etc. Anyway, what he did was spread small balls of styrofoam on the phone book page the guy (James Hydrick) was attempting to mentally move.

Years later, Hydrick admitted that he was using his breath to move the pages.

Can’t believe that I accidentally put this in the Best Webcomics replies. Paul, delete it if so inclined.

James Randi is the shiznit. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him and go to a lecture. Funny story, for cheap entertainment in grad school, I would mock the evangelist that came to campus every Friday by demanding he explain homosexuality in animals other than humans and earned the nickname, “Gay Monkey Man.” The two people in the lecture hall before me (while Randi was setting up) recognized me and asked me if I were, “Gay Monkey Man.” Randi heard and asked for the story behind it, and he laughed when I told him, which made me feel like a total fanboy

Heh, for some reason this comic is the first to make me feel that Monica has “Leveled up”.

They say that if you keep any hero going long enough that they become a god. This feel a bit like a step along the spectrum. Monica has gone from every woman protagonist to actual famous Hero (in certain circles at least).

The thing is, enough people know about what she did, at least in the magical community, or her to have a rep. Who spilled the beans? Nudge? Phix? Maybe Kukulkan after Tepoz reported in? That last is most likely.

The solution of the calendar reset problem probably caused sufficient ripples in the magic field that those sensitive enough would’ve wanted to know why. And had the abilities to find out.

For that matter, the MIB are probably pretty obvious to the non-mundane community, too. Easy enough to hide from us poor Homo Sap, but if you hang around as long as your typical mythological, and other patterns emerge.

Two side thoughts:
1) What’d the taxonomic genus for Mythologicals? Does it vary per type as much as ‘naturally’ evolved creatures?
2) Related, when was the genesis of the _most_recent_ mythological? Per Z’s comment, M is almost heading that way.

Hell, getting any of these folks locked down to a species would be a nightmare. To qoute an Incredible Hulk comic from the ’90s,

“You people will procreate with anything that isn’t nailed down, won’t you?”

Take Gorgons, for example. Eyrale can breath water, which I guess would be an amphibian trait. She has snakes for hair which would be reptillian, unless they’re simply a really active form of an anti predation display, like the eyespots on a moth. She certainly has several very mamillian traits. Body hair and whatnot. And she has a powerfull defense mechanism in that her gaze can turn a living target to ice.

From her story,(and myth) her sister, a blood sibling, had mutated or varied enough that the same defense turned the target to stone instead.

And she gave birth to a flying horse.

Oh, I forgot limited shape shifting ability.

They resemble primates, but that may be a really convincing camoflage. I’m not sure how you’d file them.

For full impact, though, we’d hope to see the drama of the teetering glass of hot coffee, just bumped by the unaware Monica in her fangirlish gushing… the horror on the face of the bystanders in the background… the subtly-conveyed certainty that a painful YEOUCH is now inevitable…

One year, at our annual Native American Exposition, our celebrity guest was Elaine Miles, and the state celebrity was Coach Kelvin Sampson. When we got to meet them, my brother just brushed by Elaine to shake the coach’s hand. Fame is a relative thing, I guess.